Pride
by Ettore
Summary: The secret to unlocking the power of his soul was something he had in abundance. Pride, and attachment. He was always prideful, and some said his attachment to things was unhealthy. But what if those two things were all he needed to become more than a simple shinobi. Hollow!Naruto.Fullbring!Naruto. Ooc. Powerful, eventually transcendent.
1. Chapter 1

This story is based off of the concept of the Fullbring and Hollows from Bleach, centered in the Naruto universe. In this story, the Juubi was a Hollow powerful enough to split off and create it's own dimension, known now as the Elemental Nations. I will not be including Kaguya or her ilk in this story as this story, or at least the idea for it, was conceived likely before she was.

**Pride**

Naruto looked at his hands disbelieving of what he saw. Had he really just done that? Gaara lay on the small mountain of sand with burns covering parts of his body, a glass wall perforated with holes the only thing that lay between him and the one who fired off the attack.

That sudden burst of anger and... hunger? Is that what that was? That burst of emotion in Naruto resulted in him pointing his fist at Gaara. From which a burst of red energy came blasting out. Gaara brought up a shield of sand in time to block most of the damage, but a few jets of whatever it was managed to pierce through the wall, melting it to glass in the process.

"No"

The rasped word was just loud enough to be heard by Naruto, who put aside the strange attack he had used to focus on the source of the word.

"No, my existence will not end." said Gaara.

He stood slowly, but found himself unable to do anything else. He saw Naruto walking over and began to panic. He couldn't even move his sand to protect himself. Naruto stumbled slowly closer and raised his hand. Gaara closed his eyes, expecting the same attack as before, but instead he found a slight weight on his shoulder. A hand. He opened his eyes to see Naruto right in front of him, softly smiling.

"I used to be like you, you know. Eager to prove you exist by raising yourself above others, only when you feel like you're nothing the only way to make yourself above others is to put them six feet under. I did that once. A man broke into my home and was prepared to kill me, had the knife right at my throat. He was a baker. I was still stronger than him, though not by much, but it was all it took to beat the life out of him. Once the adrenaline wore off i was horrified at what i had done. I always avoid the part of town that his family lives in to this day. The point is, i don't know what happened to make you so jaded towards death, but i know that feeling of vindication that comes with coming out on top in a situation like that. You let it consume you though. I had people to pull me out of that darkness, and those are the people I fight for. It wasn't my power that you lost against. It was the power of the people who kept me going, that you lost against."

With that, Naruto let go of reality, and fell into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

I wish I owned Naruto, if not for the money then simply to backtrack and end this last arc before that Kaguya woman ever made her appearance.

* * *

><p>It had been several days since the failed invasion of Konoha, and Naruto was absently throwing shuriken at a tree in training ground 7. He had just left the funeral of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage and his grandfather figure still in his dress clothes. He didn't know what to do now, aside from practicing and helping rebuild. The old man had been one of his primary reasons for wanting to become Hokage.<p>

If anything the Sandaime's death had been a wake-up call to Naruto, this having been the first time he had actually lost someone close to him. He decided to not think about it and continue throwing shuriken.

Recently, while trying to tap into whatever power he had used against Gaara, he found himself _connecting_ to things for lack of a better term. He could feel everything around him, almost as if the inanimate objects he used had a soul. When he tried to go deeper into this connection he felt, the object (such as the shuriken) bursted with a bright green mist and felt almost like it was a part of him. The shuriken he had been throwing had pierced cleanly through the tree even though he had thrown them with minimal effort.

Each time the had a glowing green mist emanate from them as they flew. This puzzled him because he was sure he wasn't channeling chakra into the blades. He would have to have channeled wind chakra into the blades to replicate that effect, which he didn't even know how to do. He just connected to it and it happened on it's own.

So he began experimenting with it. He tried to channel it like chakra to make it do similar things, but it felt different. Every time he walked up trees with it it felt like the tree was gripping the bottom of his sandals, every time he walked on water it felt like the water had become solid underneath him.

This was getting stranger by the minute.

Then he had an idea. What if he used it on something he was already familiar with? Something he connected to on a personal level. He took his forehead protector out of his pocket and held it in his hand as he tried to will it to do something.

At first nothing happened, but then it began to glow and pulse with life. The cloth lengthened around his arm and soon the metal plate seemed to split off and replicate into multiple plates of metal that seemed to crawl up his arm and enclose it in what appeared to be shiny steel armor. The metal crept up his fingers and sharpened into slight claws. He flipped his hand over in curiosity, and saw the Konoha symbol in his palm glowing a light green.

Needless to say, he didn't expect that to happen at all, but now he was excited at all the possibilities this presented. What else could he do with this new ability?

After examining the armor for a while he began to get the feeling that he was being watched, and looked around to see Kakashi in the tree behind him giving a stern glare towards Naruto.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei! What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" Naruto asked confused. Kakashi only pointed to his arm which was still encased in the armor and said, "Hiding your abilities from your comrades shows that you don't trust them. Now, why would you keep something like that a secret? You're still looked at as being the dead last, why would you want to keep it that way?"

Naruto frowned, "First of all, i think if we're talking about hiding things, you hiding that Sharingan from Sasuke makes what you're saying pretty hypocritical. Second, i didn't even know about this power till a couple days ago, so i haven't really explored it myself yet."

"I find that hard to believe, i don't even know how that's possible, what you did, but it would have to take a hell of a lot of control over your chakra to do something like that. Control i didn't know you had until just now. I-"

"It wasn't chakra" said Naruto.

"What do you mean it wasn't chakra? Of course it was. Chakra is the only type of energy that humans can use." said Kakashi confusedly."I thought that too, but i know for a fact it wasn't chakra. It felt like I was using the energy of the object itself to make it do stuff. But that's not possible is it?" asked Naruto.

'Using the energy of the things around him, could he be using Senjutsu subconciously? We need to bring this to Jiraiya-sama' thought Kakashi.

"Naruto come with me, we need to see someone." said Kakashi.

"Who?" asked Naruto, Kakashi eye-smiled and said, "You'll see. Now, can you turn that thing off? No need to show it to the public just yet."

Naruto looked at the armor on his limb and, again for lack of a better term, disconnected from it. The cloth and metal glowed bright green before shrinking back into his hand, once again taking the form of a forehead protector, which he slipped back into his pocket.

"Alright, lets go"


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own Naruto. That right belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. This is also the last time I will be using any form of disclaimer. It's annoying.**

**(Update: Forgot to put the annotation description and review responses at the bottom. It's there now.)**

"Hey Ero-sennin!" yelled Naruto from where he was, intentionally giving away Jiraiya's position outside of the hot springs. Kakashi face-palmed as the ensuing female screams prompted Jiraiya to take off at top speed away from the baths with a terrified look on his face.

"Why did you do that Naruto? And how do you know Jiraiya-sama?" asked Kakashi. Naruto merely grinned and said, "He was my sensei during the month break for the Chunin exams. He tought me toad summoning. Hurry up! We have to catch up to him before he gets away!"

As they ran after the toad Sannin, Kakashi had a contemplative look on his face as he thought about what Naruto said. 'I thought Ebisu was teaching him that month. This would explain how Naruto can summon toads however. But wait, that would mean Naruto was the one who summoned Gamabunta to fight the Ichibi!' thought Kakashi with a surprised look towards his pupil.

Naruto cought sight of a white mane of hair in the distance and decided to experiment a little bit more with his strange new power. He waited till he got to the next roof and 'connected' with the roof, causing him to shoot forward with enough force to send him flying past Jiraiya and through a water tower face-first. The water tower exploded outward and Naruto rolled onto the next roof with a dazed look on his face.

Jiraiya stopped in his flight and looked at the nigh-unconscious blond laying on the roof with a look of suprise. 'What was that?' he wondered. Kakashi landed next to Naruto with a concerned frown and checked to see if Naruto was alright. Other than the red face he seemed to be fine.

Jiraiya looked at Kakashi sternly, "Oi, what are you thinking teaching him the Shunshin so early, he hasn't even been promoted to Chunin yet."

"Jiraiya-sama i swear i haven't taught him the Shunshin yet. I don't know how he moved that fast, but it probably had something to do with what we came to talk to you about." said Kakashi. Jiraiya looked at the boy in question curiously as Naruto began to come to his senses.

"Ugh, what happened? I feel like I got hit by a kanabo. In the face." Naruto said. He looked around and saw Kakashi and Jiraiya looking at him strangely, "Oi, what are you looking at?" he demanded.

"I'm looking at someone who just tried to use a Movement Jutsu without knowing the repercussions. Now tell me who taught you that." commanded Jiraiya. Naruto looked sheepish as he said, "Well nobody taught me that, I was just trying to use my new power to go faster and i went too fast I guess."

Jiraiya was confused, "New power?" he asked, "What new power?"

"That's what we came to talk about, Naruto, if you would show him what you did with your headband?" asked Kakashi. Naruto stood up and nodded before pulling his headband out of his pocket and connecting with it. The headband once again spread out into multiple plates and crawled up Naruto's arm, before forming the clawed armor that Kakashi had seen before.

Jiraiya looked at it in wonder before Kakashi said, "I was wondering if Naruto was using some form of senjutsu to do that because he said he was 'using the energy of the object to make it do stuff' as he put it."

Jiraiya was silent as he thought about what he had seen and what Kakashi had said. 'That didn't feel like Senjutsu chakra, but it felt familiar. I wonder where I've felt that befo-' Jiraiya stopped that train of thought as he remembered, 'But that's impossible. That man said that there hasn't been any sign of a human with pure Reiatsu in centuries.' The toad sage frowned before saying, "I think I know who we can talk to about this. Follow me."

Naruto looked at Kakashi who shrugged and they jumped off the building after Naruto cancelled his ability and began walking in the direction of particular candy store.

After some time of walking, they got to the edge of the civilian district before stopping in front of a plain looking store that Naruto remembered as one of the few places that never kicked him out. The only reason why he never visited this store often was because the overmuscled man in there kinda creeped him out.

Jiraiya was the first to walk into the store with the Jonin and Genin following behind him. At first it seemed as if the store was abandoned, until they heard the sound of snoring. Jiraiya sweatdropped before walking up to the checkout desk and banging on it loudly in order to wake up the one sleeping behind it.

A suprised shout was the response as a man with fiery red hair and a face that screamed 'bad attitude' jumped up and began saying "Welcome to Urahara's Candy Shop my name is Jinta how can i help you sir?" all in one breath as if his life depended on it. He squinted his eyes as he seemed to recognise Jiraiya then his eyes widened, "Holy shit! Jiraiya?! Damn you've gotten old!"

Jiraiya got a tick mark on his temple before he punched Jinta on top of the head, "You dumbass! That's no way to greet a friend! Just because your Gigais don't age like the rest of us doesn't give you the right to say I'm old! You're older than I am!"

"Ha, I age like fine wine, you however age like milk."(1) said Jinta before a very larg hand grabbed the top of his head tightly and lifted him up (screaming) off the ground. The hand was attached to a ridiculously muscled arm that led to an equally ripped torso. The man had his black hair done in cornrows and had a large moustache on his face. He also had a pair of rectangular glasses on his face which seemed to permanently reflect the light so as to conceal his eyes.

"What did I say about sleeping on the job? Oh, hello Jiraiya-san. Are you here for a special product?" the man asked in a deep, stern yet polite voice.

"Hey Tessai, i was actually wondering if i could talk to Urahara about something. It involves the brat here." He said gesturing to Naruto.

The now named Tessai grew serious, "Does it have to do with the Seal?" he asked.

"No, it actually has to do with the conversation we had about Fullbringers." said Jiraiya. Tessai looked sharply at Naruto, who flinched back at the stare, "Problems?" he asked. Tessai stared for a moment longer before looking to Jiraiya again and saying that he would get Urahara immediately.

After walking into the back of the store, he came back out with another man with a cane that wore a green haori over his shoulders and a green striped bucket hat on his head that shadowed his eyes. He had platinum blond hair and a pleasant (if slightly creepy) smile on his face. Another notable thing about him was he seemed to wear the exact same geta sandals that Jiraiya wore.

"Hey Jiraiya, been a while, how are you today?" said the man. Jiraiya gave him a friendly grin and said, "I'm alright, how bout you Kisuke?"

"Not too shabby, so what did you come to talk about? Tessai tells me you said something about Fullbringers." said Kisuke. He looked at the two people with Jiraiya and slightly frowned upon noticing Naruto. Naruto saw this and glared at him, "You got something to say?"

Kisuke grinned, "Oh, did you think I was frowning because of the Hollow in your gut? Well I wasn't, I was just wondering why Jiraiya brought you here to discuss something most people don't know about... unless you were involved of course."

Naruto was surprised, he didn't expect that response from him at all. Wait, what did he just call the Kyuubi? "Did you just say Hollow?"

"Ah, perceptive of you, yes I did. You call them demons now, and there aren't as many anymore as there used to be, but a Hollow is still a Hollow." said Urahara. "What is a Hollow?" asked Naruto.

Kisuke shook his head, "We need to continue this conversation in a more private setting. Follow me." With that, the group save Jinta followed Kisuke to the back of the store where he revealed a trap door. "After you, and don't look down.

In response, both Naruto and Kakashi looked into the trap door to see a brightly lit floor of dirt... at least 250 feet below.

Naruto was the first one to speak up, "Ummm, are we supposed to jump down there? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that I'll die." Urahara looked affronted, "Of course not, what kind of host would I be if i let you jump down a random hole in the back of my innocent candy store. You're going to use that ladder of course." Yes, because that's infinitely better. Wait, what ladder? Naruto looked back in the hole to see a straight metal ladder extending all the way dow to the bottom. Where did that come from? Whatever, no guts no glory. Naruto began climbing down the ladder slowly. Kakashi, having been forgotten for a moment, did the same apprehensively. One by one they all got to the bottom after about five minutes.

"Alright, getting back up there is going to be a pain in the ass." said Naruto. Jiraiya nodded in agreement, "It is." Naruto looked around and was astonished at the magnitude of the place. It was huge. Aaaand the ladder was gone. Freaky. Naruto looked up and saw a sky complete with clouds, and no hole where they came from.

"Ok, what the hell is up with this place, first there's no ladder, then there is, next we get to the bottom and the ladder disappears, as well as the hole in the ceiling!" shouted Naruto.

"The answer is simple, you're in my world now..." said Urahara with a creepy ghoulish face. Naruto and Kakashi flinched and backed away slowly before Urahara and Jiraiya broke down laughing. They started rolling on the floor cracking up for a little bit before Kisuke calmed down enough to talk, "That never gets old. I never get the chance to do it either, the last time i did it was to Jiraiya. I have an illusion placed on the ladder and the trapdoor so that i can freak people out whenever i manage to get someone new down here."

Jiraiya wiped the tears from his eyes, "Now i know why you do that, it's hilarious."

"Alright, back to business." said Kisuke, "What have you got for me Jiraiya? What makes you think it's a Fullbring and not a Bount's Doll?" Jiraiya looked at him blankly, "Other than, according to you, the Bounts are all dead? Simple, he said that he's using the energy of the object to make the object do things such as transform."

"And you saw him do this?" asked Kisuke, "he could be lying."

"Show him Naruto." said Kakashi. Naruto did as instructed and made his headband turn into the armor. Kisuke watched, fascinated, as he stransformed it back.

"Ok, I need you to tell me when this power started happening, and how." Kisuke requested.

Naruto began explaining how he used that energy bullet against Gaara, then after he woke up and after the Sandaime's funeral how he was using that ability to throw the shuriken, and finally how he tried it on his headband and afterwards when he used it to get that burst of speed that almost knocked him out.

Kisuke had a solemn look on his face as he walked over to naruto, held up his cane (which had a flaming skull symbol on the tip) and poked Naruto hard in the chest.

Naruto's soul came out of his body and fell to the ground as he heard Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Tessai gasp. Naruto was wondering what was wrong until he felt a massive, crushing hunger and a feeling of rage from inside of him. He meant to ask what was happening but all that came out was a double toned growl. He felt his body tense for a fight when Kisuke reached foreward and his vision started to blur before he fell unconscious.

(1): If you know where this came from, props.

REVIEW ANSWERS:

coduss: Not sure yet.

*Alucard*: haven't decided on that

Ejammer: Why? Because i said he'd be OOC? To tell you the truth, the only reason i put that there is so people don't yell at me if i get Naruto's character wrong or decide to take liberties with it, which i will be doing.


	4. Chapter 4

**Seeing as i forgot to put the disclaimer for Bleach in the last chapter before I published it, I'll do it now. I do not own Bleach, that right belongs to Tite Kubo.**

Naruto awoke several minutes later in his body to everyone in the room except Urahara looking at him warily. After a couple minutes of this he decided to ask, "What the hell just happened".

"For future reference, the ability you used on Gaara was called a Bala. It's an ability characteristic of a Hollow Of Adjuchas class or higher. The reason why you have Fullbring, and the reason why you were able to use Bala, is because you are a Hollow in a human body. Normally a simple Hollow is unable to use Bala until it reaches the Adjuchas stage of Menos, but since you have a Biju class Menos sealed within your body, and the seal intwines it with your very soul, you have the ability to use any number of Hollow techniques should you decide to learn them." explained Kisuke.

"Wait, so the Kyuubi turned me into one of these Hollow things?" asked Naruto.

"No, the Kyuubi is the reason why you are able to use Hollow techniques right now, but the reason why you are a Hollow is because of your childhood. Emotional damage affects your very soul, and so thats why you are a Hollow. It happens from time to time, a human child is neglected or attacked during their early development and becomes a Hollow as a result before they even die. Sometimes these people even tend to have out of body experiences due to the fact that they are only linked to their body not through a Chain of Fate, but because they subconsciously consider their body to be their territory, not themselves." said Kisuke.

"Im not sure I understand this, but i think i know what a Hollow is now. It's a tormented soul isnt it?" asked Naruto.

"That's exactly what it is." confirmed the scientist, "Now! Before we do anything else, i need to make sure that when you die, you wont go causing mayhem as a Hollow, because although the Shinigami Avatar is supposed to automatically take souls who die to Seireitei, it hasn't had to deal with a Hollow before. To this world, other than the Biju, you are the first Hollow to be created. Just so you know, The Shinigami Avatar is the Death God that some people see in this world. Theres one for every Living World, and they are simply an advanced Kido, or spell created by our new Reio after the old one was killed by the Quincy King Ywach."

"Ok, so what do i do?" asked Naruto.

"Well, since you asked, I'm going to push you out of your body again, and you are going to get control. If you don't, I'm going to kill you, understand?" asked Kisuke seriously.

Naruto thought about it, and he didn't want to kill people mindlessly when he died, but he also didn't want to die. This wasn't an easy decision.

"If you're having trouble, you should know that the first people hollows go after when they die are the ones they love and care for."

Well that pretty much made up his mind for him, no way was he going to start killing his precious people. Ever.

"Ill do it."

**Short but informative chapter to give you an idea of what this universe is like. There's only one review response but thats because i wrote this chapter an hour after the last one.**

outcastmike: Thank you, and i hope this and the next chapter are to your liking.


	5. Chapter 5

.

"I'll do it" said Naruto. He had to, for him there was no other option.

"Alright, im going to have Tessai restrain you once I push your soul out of your body, so hang in there. Everyone else, get far enough away, i don't want you interfering." Jiraiya and Kakashi, who had been strangely silent, nodded and jumped until they were a couple hundred feet away.

"Alright, now then."

Urahara walked up to Naruto and jabbed him with the cane again, and what came out was strange to say the least. It was all black with orange fur on it's back and shoulders, a wide muscled shoulder span, and a black hollow mask with flat teeth and six white whisker-like grooves above the white teeth, three on each side. It seemed to struggle for a bit before it looked at Urahara hungrily.

The roar it let out was horrifying.

"HADO 1: SHO!"

An invisible blast of kinetic energy hit the Hollow in the chest right beneath its hollow hole, knocking it down. Urahara moved out of the way after firing the Hado, so Tessai could get to work restraining him, "Bakudo 63: Sajo Sabaku!" Yellow chains wrapped around the Hollow's arms as it was trying to get up, causing it to fall over again, this time on its front. Tessai called out the name of his next next Bakudo loudly, pushing as much Reiatsu into it as he possibly could, "Bakudo 99: Part One: Kin" Heavy straps fell over the Hollow before they were bolted to the ground with metal ingots.

The Hollow let out another roar before opening it's mouth unnaturally wide, showing Naruto's face beneath the mask. Naruto, or at least what appeared to be Naruto, crawled out of the open mouth before reforming a mask and a Hollow body. Then, as if that wasn't strange enough, another Naruto crawled out of the still pinned Hollow and did the same thing.

Now faced with the two doppelgangers, Kisuke opted to killing them and hoping that it didn't do anything to his soul, "Awaken, Benihime." he called as he pulled his sword out of his cane. The sword immediately took the shape of a straight, two-toned sword with a curved handle. He swung his sword quickly at the Hollow on the right while saying "Scream".

A red crescent of energy literally screamed from the tip of the blade outward towards the Hollow, obscuring it in a cloud of dust. The other Hollow wasn't idle however as it went sprinting towards Tessai. Urahara cut it off with a slash of his sword across its chest, only giving it a shallow wound, 'What?! How does it have a Hierro already?' he wondered. He tried stabbing it in its eyes, a standard tactic for Hollows with Hierro, but it ducked under the blade and bit Urahara on the shoulder. It wrapped it's arms around him in a crushing embrace before cracks started appearing on the beast, emitting red light. Kisuke tried to escape but the Hollow held firm. The cracks spread before the Hollow exploded with force enough to shake the whole training area.

Kisuke jumped out of the ensuing dust cloud with several burns on his body and his haori ripped and tattered. He watched and waited after making sure Tessai was alright. The large man was visibly sweating in exertion from holding down the Hollow. As Kisuke watched however, the Hollow he thought he had destroyed appeared behind Tessai in a sonic boom, and made for it's clawed hands to pierce Tessai's throat.

Just as it was about to make contact, the hand stopped.

The Hollow dissipated into black Reiatsu and that cloud flew into the still pinned Hollow's mouth, causing the Hollow to emit an explosion of Reiatsu that destroyed the Bakudo holding it down.

As it stood, instead of it's eyes being the all glowing yellow of the wild Hollow, the eyes looked somewhat human except for it's yellow irides and black sclera.

**"I can't hold it, I'm sorry." **said Naruto in a dual-toned voice before he swung his claw through the air, ripping a black tear in the fabric of reality, a Garganta. He jumped through the Garganta just as it slammed shut, leaving the Shinobi World entirely.

* * *

><p>Im not sure how this is going to be recieved but as far as my plan, its going great.<p>

No new reviews, but its only been a couple hours so I'm not worried.


	6. Chapter 6

.

It had been six days since Naruto left through the Garganta, and Jiraiya was getting nervous. Why hasn't he come back? _Can _he come back? The thought of Naruto in another world for any length of time worried Jiraiya, not even counting whether he can get back at all.

Jiraiya had been staying in the shop waiting for Naruto to come back back while Kakashi tells everybody that wanted to know that Jiraiya and Naruto left on a mission.

'Please come back soon, Naruto.' thought Jiraiya.

XXXXX

SIX DAYS EARLIER, HUECO MUNDO

XXXXX

Naruto had been walking in his Hollow form through the endless desert for about five hours. The sands calmed him down enough to keep sane, and he decided to use all of the mindless hollows that were attacking him periodically as practice. He was stronger than most of them, however, so it quickly became boring. As he was walking he had grown accustomed to being able to sense Reiatsu, and he used it to keep his guard up. So it was strange when he felt someone watching him, but couldn't sense any Reiatsu in the area. In fact, it was like an overwhelming blanket of nothing, as if he lost the ability to sense Reiatsu entirely.

Which made it even more suspicious when he saw someone walking up to him out of the corner of his vision.

This man had long black hair, pants and a haori that seemed to be made of black fire, a hollow hole but no mask, a silver bracelet with a five pointed cross on it on his right wrist, and an oversized black katana hanging from his back. But easily the strangest thing about him were his eyes. Those eyes were black with what looked like a white hourglass shape sideways in the center.

**"Who are you?"** demanded Naruto, as he tensed up for a fight. The being merely blinked and an enormous pressure forced Naruto to the ground for a split second, disappearing as fast as it came.

**"What are you?"** Naruto panted out. Waiting for an answer but not daring to move, lest he incur the things wrath.

"Now that is a more apt question, Uzumaki Naruto. We are known as the Reio, the Spirit King, or God. You may call Us Ichigo, as that was what We used to be called, although We might also be Ywach, or even Zangetsu. Time erodes memory, even for Us."

Naruto stayed silent as he thought about it, 'This thing says it's God, but what would God want with me?'

"An excellent question, Uzumaki Naruto. You seem to be full of those." responded the Reio as if Naruto had spoken aloud, "We will not tell you that, as for Our plan to succeed, you must not know of your chosen fate."

Naruto grew incensed by this, God or not, **"You think you can choose my fate?"** he asked.

"On the contrary, it is you who has chosen your fate. We asked you when you were Asura, and you chose. We asked you when you were Hashirama, and you chose. We will ask you again, eventually, and you will choose, though what you choose is entirely up to you." stated the Reio.

Now Naruto was even more confused, **"Choose what?"**

"Your fate." said the Reio, "We will give you a command and you will follow it to the letter."

**"Again with the controlling me, what makes you think I'll obey?"** asked Naruto, genuinely interested in the answer.

"This time, you don't get to choose" said the Reio before looking directly into Naruto's eyes, and the next Words seemed to resonate within his skull, **'You will go the Menos forest and proceed to devour every Gillian you find for the next five days, you will then open a Garganta to the Dangai, where you will train your body and soul for half of one day, then you will remove your mask, and continue to train for the remaining half day. You will return from the Dangai to the 'Shinobi world' on the seventh day in exactly the place you left from. Your God Commands you.'**

**"Yes, my Lord"**


	7. Chapter 7

.

Naruto stood within his inner world, while in reality he sat cross legged in the Dangai. The purple fleshy walls completely still, the train like Cleaner halted somewhere down the line. All of these abnormalities were the result of the Reio's interference with the Dangai. Everyone else who might have gone through the Dangai that day would find themselves unable to enter a Senkaimon, or even open a Garganta leading to the Dangai. Naturally this caused a bit of a panic within the Soul Society, but when the Reio came himself to reassure everyone that it was intentional, and thus crisis was averted.

Naruto's inner world was a copy of Konoha, just more technologically advanced, with strange towers and cables linking them together. Naruto was standing on the side of a round tower firing six hellish-orange Cero's in six separate directions, without moving a muscle or even making a gesture.

"Well, looks like I have that mastered too. What to do, I have about thirty Dangai-minutes left before I can finally return to the Shinobi world. I think I'll just sit, and relax." said the person in question before he jumped off the building and landed on thin air before sitting down and waiting midair.

The thing about the Dangai is, time flows differently there. One hour in the Waking Realms is equivalent to one _ month_ in the Dangai. Naruto has spent pretty much an entire Waking day in the Dangai, meaning that he has been training nonstop for two years.

Two. Years.

Now, if you were training nonstop for even one year, alone, you would probably start to go insane. At the very least you would start talking to yourself on a daily basis. That's exactly what Naruto did, but he didn't think himself insane until he started talking _back. _For some reason he never felt hungry anymore.

Anyway, he had learned a lot from the Hollows he had eaten, and one thing he learned was that Zanpakutou had spirits, and that when he tore off his mask, he would gain a Zanpakutou.

Well, needless to say, it was vastly disappointing when he became an Arrancar and realized that (Although he was more powerful now even without using Resurrecion) the Zanpakutou of an Arrancar was merely a seal on it's true powers. There was no spirit, even if there was a soul.

So he continued to train, mastering every Hollow technique that he knew of(And after he devoured a Vasto Lorde, that was quite a bit) to perfection. He could now spar with himself using soul splitting to create five more copies of him. He could charge and fire six Ceros simultaneously within a second.

Why was it always six? Every time he mastered something he could at most produce six of whatever it was.

Oh well, that'd be enough to deal with anyone short of a Biju so he shouldn't be worried about improving it further.

Naruto stood, already bored, as he put his hands in his pockets. He was five-nine, and wearing an inverted Shihakusho, black on the inside and white on the outside. He carried a katana on his hip that sported a Waloon style basket-hilt rather than a traditional tsuba. On his face were six white bone fragments that covered up his whisker marks, and they extended to the back of his neck where they connected with a black and white collar made of some type of metal the fragments were strange, however, in that they flowed with his facial expressions instead of standing rigid like you would expect bone to be.

"Che, i never got to test out my Fullbring's capabilities when I was in the living world. Those dumbasses better have kept my body alive or i might just use Gonzui on the whole damn village. After getting all of my friends out of there of course." He said as he waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally he left his inner world and went to one of the fleshy walls of the Dangai, before testing to see if he could open a Garganta. It worked. Yes! He could finally go home!

He stepped trough the Garganta and was met with the glaring fake sunlight of the training area in Kisuke's basement. He almost couldn't believe it. The last two years was merely a single day here in the Shinobi World.

He noticed that he couldn't see a ladder anywhere, and he didn't want to try to find it again, so he used a simpler method of getting attention. He pulsed his Reiatsu a bit, and was rewarded when he saw a hole open up in what appeared to be the sky.

He saw Kisuke poke his head in before yelling, "Oi, you trying to kill the civilians or what?" He flash-stepped into the room right in front of Naruto who saw the ladder appear before Jiraiya came sliding down it like a madman laughing the whole way. The toad Sannin ran over and gave Naruto a giant hug while spinning him around before he dropped him and started shouting, "Where the hell have you been?! I was worried about you! Plus we had to lie to your friends and say that we're going on a mission. Well, we are, but thats not the poi-" Jiraiya was cut off by the bitchslap of the century as he flew into a rock.

"QUIT YELLING IN MY DAMN EAR YOU OLD BASTARD!" Naruto screamed before calming down. He looked to Urahara, "I guess I forgot how goddamn annoying he can be at times. Thank Ichigo, Ywach or whoever the hell the Reio is anymore because it's been a long ass time since I've talked to anyone at all."

"Yes i imagine a week would be a long time for somebody as hyper as you." said Jiraiya as he stood up with a red handprint on his face.

"A week! Hahahahahahaha! A week! I could handle a fucking week. Try two goddamn years!" Naruto yelled.

Both Jiraiya and Kisuke were confused. Jiraiya was the one that spoke up, "Naruto, you've been gone for a week, not even that yet, it's still morning."

Naruto laughed, "Oh don't get me wrong, it's been a week for you. The Reio decided he was going to lock me in the Dangai to train for an entire day. That's why I grew, why I'm an Arrancar, and why I have such piss poor language now."

Kisuke was shocked, "Wait, you saw the Reio, you saw Ichigo? Naruto, he hasn't been seen in over two hundred years, and now you are saying you not only saw him, but talked to him? While it certainly would explain why the Dangai was locked down today, I find it a little hard to believe that you saw him. I need proof. What did his eyes look like?"

Naruto grimaced, "They were freaky, like they were black with a white sideways hourglass inside them."

Kisuke closed his eyes, "So you did see him. Naruto, you need to know, that thing is an omnipresent tragedy. I knew Ichigo personally, he actually started out as a simple human. A civilian. He didn't even have chakra. Then he became a Shinigami to protect his family and town. I'm not going to give you the whole story but he was there when Ywach,the Quincy King absorbed the previous Reio. He fought Ywach and, using a combination of his Hollow and Quincy powers, absorbed him in turn. But Ichigo was still a human, and a young one at that. His mind, and that of the original Reio, Ywach, and his Hollow, shattered. What you see is a combination of the four identities. Making him into something that wasn't remotely human anymore. That's why he is able to travel amongst and freely control the worlds. He is a true God now.

Naruto and Jiraiya were silent before Naruto spoke, "He said he had a plan for me. He said i already made my choice as to my fate first when i was someone named Asura, then as someone named Hashirama. I don't know about you, but i only know about one person named Hashirama. Senju Hashirama. The Shodai Hokage."

Kisuke nodded, as well as Jiraiya. Hashirama is a very unique name. Not many people have it.

Naruto suddenly clapped his hands, "Alright, enough deep thinking bullshit. Time to get to work. Kisuke, do you have any way to age my real body to fit me? I didn't train for two years straight just to have to relearn how to walk."

"Sure, I'll get right on it."

* * *

><p>Review response(Response. As in singular)<p>

outcastmike: Thanks and i hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.


	8. Chapter 8

.

Naruto found that he could still use his Hollow abilities in his human body. Well, except for Soul-Splitting. And he couldn't use them to the same extent. For instance, he could still fire a Cero, he just had to aim his palm at whatever he wanted to destroy, and it was a standard red Cero instead of his more powerful orange version.

He didn't want to risk using the Gran Rey Cero or Cero Oscuras until he had to, but he knew he wouldn't need them yet anyway.

The duo of Jiraiya and Naruto were walking to a place known as Tanzaku Gai, in an effort to find and retrieve Tsunade Senju, the Slug Sannin and the best medic in the world. She was to take Sarutobi's place as the Godaime Hokage of Konoha, and hopefully perform the surgery to heal Rock Lee's arm and leg.

They checked in to a hotel in an adjacent town, and Jiraiya left to meet with one of his spies in the town.

Naruto had just put his pants on after taking a shower when he heard a knock at the door. Grabbing his Zanpakutou from where he left it on the bed, he reached out and felt two Reiatsu signatures beyond the door. While Both were above Jonin, one was almost the size of a Biju. He felt something similar to a Zanpakuto as well, but it was more along the lines of what a Bakkoto should feel like according to Kisuke.

Opening the window, he used Sonido to reach the ground, and Bringer Light to speed him towards the forest oitside of the town. Once he got there, he spread ot his senses while running and felt the two gaining on him rapidly. He pushed more into his Bringer Light and kept running until he was about a mile out of the town, then he stopped in a clearing and waited. Two men wearing black cloacks with red clouds stopped at the edge of the clearing. They were both panting lightly and it only took a second for Naruto to realize who they were.

The large blue one with the Bakkoto and the Biju level Reiatsu was Kisame Hoshigaki, and the smaller one with the fully matured Sharingan was Itachi Uchiha.

"Damn kid, your fast." said Kisame. He straightened and widened his eyes as he realised that the kid in front of him looked to be almost fifteen, instead of the eleven year old they were told to expect.

Itachi was studying him as well, wondering why he seemed to have aged quicker.

"I had a lot of practice." said Naruto with a grin, "Now, i know who you are but i don't know why you're working together, care to enlighten me?"

"Our orders from Akatsuki are to obtain the Kyuubi Jinchuriki." said Itachi in his monotone voice, having gotten his second wind.

Naruto blinked. That was actually very informative. He shook his head and pulled out a kunai before throwing it with Bringer Light. The kunai soared forward towards Kisame who brought his sword around in time for a block. What he didn't expect was for the kunai to sink into Samehada halfway, causing the weapon to writhe and squeal in pain. Kisame hurriedly pulled the kunai out and examined it. It was just an ordinary kunai.

Kisame growled and asked, "What was that? Even if you coated your weapon in wind chakra, my Samehada should have absorbed it."

Naruto merely grinned wider, "I'll give you a hint. Youll never beat me if you think I'm using chakra."

"He's right Kisame," Itachi spoke up, "Whatever kind of energy he's using, it isn't chakra. It flows differently and it seems like he has the air around himself saturated with it."

"If you don't mind I'm going to use you guys as practice for some of my techniques, I haven't been able to use them on fleshy things in roughly two years." said Naruto before he pulled out his forehead protector and activated his armor. He disappeared in a burst of Sonido before reappearing behind Kisame with his fist cocked back and glowing with green energy. He swung his fist forward and made contact not with Kisame, but with Samehada as he brought it around for a parry. The Bringer Light that had been stored in the fist was released to the side, kicking up a lot of debris and making a dust cloud in the process. Naruto used this opportunity to get away with Sonido before Kisame finished swinging his sword through where Naruto used to be. Naruto reappeared back in the middle of the clearing, and he deactivated his armor before slipping his forehead protector back in his pocket.

"Alright, those are all of the Fullbring abilitied that i know right now, so now it's time for some Hollow power." said Naruto before he held up his right fist which was crackling with red energy. A glow covered his fist entirely before he thrust his fist forward while shouting, "Bala!"

A red bullet of Reiryoku flew from Naruto's fist at the speed of sound, smashing into and exploding on Kisame's chest. The blue man flew into the woods before crashing in the distance.

Naruto turned to Itachi and he tensed up, prepared for a fight. Naruto opened his mouth to say something when Kisame appeared in a Shunshin, swinging his now uncovered blade at Naruto's side. The sharp scales ripped Naruto's left arm from his elbow entirely.

"Ow! You motherfucker that hurt!" screamed Naruto before he kicked Kisame twenty feet into another tree. ĉ̅

Naruto picked up his fallen arm and after examining it, threw it aside as it was useless. He had an enraged expresstion on his face as he silently noted which direction the town was in. "Sorry Kisame, you've pissed me off." He wiped some blood from his arm onto his right hand and began grinning in an insane way. A blue sphere of pure energy began forming from the blood on his hand and it shrunk down to about the size of a golf ball before he aimed it at Kisame.

"GRAN REY CERO!"

The unstable blue beam of energy absolutely annihilated the forest where Kisame was sitting and beyond as a massive dust cloud blanketed the area.

As soon as the dust cleared however, instead of Kisame's ashes, he saw a cracked ethereal shield being held up by a red glowing giant skeleton.

"What the hell? No way! Itachi?! How the hell did you survive my most destructive attack? Granted I'm in my weakest state but still!"

Itachi coughed up a little bit of blood before saying, "We need to leave, now." He picked up Kisame who was looking on in shock and they vanished in a swirling vortex. The skeleton started to crumble and dissipate before it was gone entirely.

Naruto stood there for a couple minutes as he waited for his sensei as he could feel him approaching.

Jiraiya burst through the trees and immediately noticed Naruto's bleeding stump where his arm used to be, "Goddammit, Naruto don't pass out!" He ran over to Naruto who just stared at it as if concentrating.

'He's in shock.' was Jiraiya's first thought, but then a black slimy substance emanated from the stump and took the shape of an arm before becoming smooth. Jiraiya stood in shock as he just watched his pupil regenerate an arm within seconds.

Naruto flexed out his new arm, waiting for the tingling sensation to go away before turning to Jiraiya and asking, "What? Didn't Kisuke tell you that some Hollows have High Speed Regeneration?"

"No, he didn't. And what was that explosion? I saw a bright blue light from a quarter of a mile away!" exlaimed Jiraiya.

"That was my Gran Rey Cero, I tried to destroy them in one shot but Itachi blocked it with some kind of demonic skeleton and ran away."

"Wait, did you just say Itachi? As in Itachi Uchiha? You just fought Itachi and forced him to flee? Are you serious? Wait. You said 'them'. Who's 'them'?" Asked Jiraiya. Naruto merely walked over to the smoking crater and picked up the weapon that was left behind. Jiraiya recognized it immediately, "Samehada? You fought Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigake together and won." he said flatly before shaking his head in disbelief.

"Yes yes. All praise the holy ramen fishcake. Now if you dont mind carrying me? I cant move anymore. I'll be good in an hour but for right now i overused my Reiryoku. Please and thank you." said Naruto before wobbling.

Jiraiya moved forward and caught him before placing him on his back.

"You're something else kid."

* * *

><p>From now on I will only be responding to reviews that ask me a question, as saying Thank You over and over gets annoying even if i do genuinely appreciate it.<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

.

Naruto was bored. They'd been searching this whole damn town, (Which happened to have a great number of bars) and Naruto was getting tired of it. He considered flaring his Reiatsu just to get Tsunade to come out, but realised he might just kill some civilians with the pressure of it. So it was back to quare one, the only silver lining is that there were only four more bars left that they hadn't searched. 'Here's hoping she's even in this shithole' Naruto thought. Just as they were walking to one of the bars, there was a loud crash, as well as some drunken yelling from a woman with a powerful voice.

Jiraiya grinned, "Looks like we found her, come on." Naruto was a little bit skeptical, "Some drunkard is going to become the Hokage? If that's the case you may as well just give me the hat now, at least I wouldn't get drunk on the job."

"You can't even get drunk to begin with" said Jiraiya.

"True." admitted Naruto, "But seriously, it's just barely noon, who drinks like that this damn early?"

Jiraiya scoffed, "She does, thats who. Hey, maybe if you keep bitching you'll piss her off enough where you'll get to fight her." he said sarcastically. Naruto now had a contemplative look on his face before he said, would that work? I mean, if i beat her in a fight would i be able to just become Hokage? You know I won't settle for being a Chunin forever."

"Actually you're still a Genin..." Jiraiya mumbled. Unfortunately for him, however, Naruto heard what he said and whipped his head around with a crack, his face a mixture of confusion and anger, "Care to run that by me again? I thought i just heard the word 'Genin' as an adjective for me."

"Well the only one to be promoted from your age group was Shikamaru Nara and that was only because he was helping defend the village with his strategies during the invasion." stated Jiraiya nervously. Naruto had an unreadable expression on and it worried Jiraiya.

XXXXX

IN THE BAR

XXXXX

Tsunade had fianlly sat down after pummeling a poor drunk fool who had tried to touch her breasts. She was just about to take another sip of sake when a red and white blur she recognised as Jiraiya flew through the wall right next to the door, destroying several tables in a path of destruction. At the entrance of the carnage, a blond boy of perhaps fifteen was standing there with the 'I'm gonna go off on a rant' look on his face, and that's exactly what he did.

"You mean to tell me that those useless old meat puppets in the council denied me a promotion to Chunin because they 'Didnt feel I was ready'? What kind of bullshit is that? I fought a Biju for fucks sake! And WON! So don't give me that 'I'm not ready' crap when you know damn well that i could kick your ass if I went all out." Naruto was breathing heavily before looking around to see everyone in the room staring at him. He chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head, "Ehehe, sorry about the mess, I'll pay damages so don't worry about that."

"Dont worry about it gaki, I'll do it instead" said Jiraiya(who looked absolutely peachy for someone who got thrown through a wall.)

"Besides, if you want to get a promotion i suggest taking it up with the Godaime whenever she takes the hat." said Jiraiya before he looked piercingly at Tsunade, who had been watching amused up until that point. A frown worked it's way onto her face as she realized the implications of what Jiraiya had said.

"What makes you think I'll go anywhere with you? Let alone to take that idiot's position. The Hokage hat is for suicidal fools and I'm not suicidal nor am I a fool." she said as she took another sip of sake. She blinked and Naruto was in front of her staring her down. "Sarutobi-jiji made it clear that you were to be his successor before he died. As far as I'm concerned that makes it a direct order from a superior officer. You are still an active shinobi, and that means you are going whether you like it or not."

Tsunade glared at him, "And what are you going to do? Force me? I could destroy you little brat. If you're so eager to prove yourself then lets take it outside."

Naruto glared right back, "I fought and defeated The Ichibi no Shukaku, a Vasto Lorde, Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha in the span of three weeks, if you want to add yourself to the list then by all means, 'lets take it outside'.

Tsunade felt her confidence waver the moment she realized he wasn't lying, but squashed that down with anger as she got up from her table and walked through the hole in the wall that Naruto had created. She stood outside in the street waiting as Naruto got on the opposite side of the street.

They stared each other down for a moment before Tsunade ran forward at breakneck speed with her fist cocked back. Naruto saw her move but decided to test his strength against hers. He used his black left arm to catch her punch, upon which the arm exploded, sending blood and bone shards everywhere. Naruto used the distraftion of his arm to hit her with s powerful kick to the side which sent her careening down an alleyway.

She caught herself and looked at Naruto who was standing still while looking at his arm stump. She was suprised when black liquid came rushing out of the stump before taking the shape of an arm and smoothing out to create the same black arm she saw on him before.

Naruto flexed his new arm while saying, "You know, thats the second arm I've had to grow back in as many days."

Tsunade was stunned, "How the hell did you do that? Regeneration on that scale is impossible without a Yin Seal, and even then it takes time."

"Well I'm not human. Well my body is but my soul grants me more than a few abilities." he said before pulling back a fist, "Like this, Bala!" He swung the fist forward and the red bullet of energy shot towards her at supersonic speed. She was conditioned to fight on a high level already, however, and was able to dodge, if just barely.

When she went to attack him however, he was gone, and she looked around in an effort to locate him. He appeared behind her and hit her in the back with a Bala at point blank range, destroying her Haori and sending her flying into the street they started on. She got up to see Naruto right in front of her, looking down on her with pity, "You and I know I shouldn't be having such an easy time of this, when was the last time you trained?"

"I don't need to answer to you!" she growled before she puffed up her cheeks and blew out a sizeable cloud of purple mist. She used the cover in order to land a full-forced punch on his ribcage, shattering it and probably liquifying the organs inside. Naruto flew out of the cloud and impacted againt a stone wall, crushing it behind him.

Naruto stood up shakily as he saw the worried look on her face, "Hehe*cough,cough* damn you pack a punch, there's only one way for me to survive this now..."

Naruto pulled his basket-hilt katana out of it's sheath before saying two words.

"Play, Desviado"

An explosion of orange Reiatsu emanated from Naruto before it dissipated to reveal Naruto's appearance.

Naruto went down on all fours as what appeared to be a fox's skeleton formed around him. The mouth of the skull opened up to reveal Naruto's face, except he had no skin or hair. His skeleton began cracking as his body formed into the fox skeleton above him. Naruto looked at Tsunade before he disappeared entirely.

Then her world went dark.


	10. Chapter 10

.

Tsunade awoke with a groan and sat up with some difficulty.

"Sorry about that, my proficiency with the Static Surge in my human form is shoddy at best, it was just supposed to make you fall asleep, not knock your ass out." said Naruto from where he sat next to her bed.

She looked at him before laying back down and staring at the ceiling, "Why is it so important that I take the hat? Why can't you do it? You're stronger than me."

"Bullshit and you know it. The only reason i beat you is probably because you haven't tried to improve yourself in probably over a decade. Meaning you were fighting with pure instinct and you still almost killed me. Plus the only Jutsu you used was the poison cloud one, and I don't even know how that's possible at all." said Naruto.

"If you use the Shosen technique to modify the cells in your saliva glands, you can create any number of poisons from anesthetics to corrosive acid. The acid is hard on your mouth though." said Tsunade before she heard Naruto laugh.

"See? If you did all that on instinct, just imagine all the things you could do if you nonstop honed your abilities."

"What was that thing you turned into? Are you a Jinchuriki?" asked Tsunade.

"Well yes, I am the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, and yes that form is due to the Kyuubi's influence, but it had nothing to do with the Kyuubi's chakra. In fact, I wasn't even using chakra at all. I was using Reiryoku, or what you would call Yin Release. Everything i used against you was pure spiritual energy, seing as I'm a purely spiritual being." explained Naruto.

"What do you mean 'spiritual being'? You're just as physical as the rest of us if i was able to hit you." said Tsunade.

"Not true, even if I was in my true spirit form you would still be able to see and hit me because you posess chakra, which is half Reiryoku, and half Ki. Every being in this world possesses chakra, even the surroundings possess chakra."

"But I don't understand, what makes you different from a normal human then?" asked Tsunade.

"I'm a Hollow."

"A Hollow? What's a Hollow?" she asked, confused.

"A Hollow, for lack of a better term, is a tortured soul. Something that has been so twisted by negative emotion that it is no longer human." Naruto explained with a grim look.

Tsunade's eyes widened. What happened to this child to turn him into something like that? Naruto noticed the look, "Well the reason why i became a Hollow is because of the Kyuubi attack 12 years ago. After the Kyuubi was sealed inside of me on the day of my birth, people began to resent me for containing it. As the years went on i was either being ignored by the people with self control or beaten by the people without it. People gave me rotton food, charged me too much or simply wouldn't allow me in their stores. Then I got kicked out of the orphanage, and lived in the alleys of Konoha for a couple years until Sarutobi-jiji found me and helped me out. He gave me an apartment, food and a stipend for whatever i wanted to get within reason. I lived like that until I became a Shinobi, then i was able to pay for everything i needed on my own. Believe it or not, i didn't even know i was a Hollow until about two weeks ago. Well for you it was two weeks, for me it was two years and two weeks."

"What do you mean 'for you'?" Tsunade asked curiously. Naruto then went on to explain about the different worlds and his experience with two of them. Tsunade was skeptical at first, but then Naruto ejected himself from his human body with a Soul Candy provided by Urahara, and that is when she saw the hole in his chest signifying him as a Hollow. Reentering his body was a pain as usual though, and it even elicited a laugh out of Tsunade. Now back in his body, he decided to get back on topic.

"But back to your question, I can't really think of a reason why you wouldn't want to. I know about your story from Ero-sennin, but i still can't see any reason why that wouldn't motivate you further. In fact, since both Dan and Nawaki wanted to become Hokage, it seems like it would be insulting their memory if you wasted this opportunity." Naruto said.

"This is a lot to take in. Can you give me some time to think? I'll consider going with you. Just let me be for a bit." said Tsunade.

Naruto nodded and stood up before leaving the hotel room to go train in the forest. Shizune entered the room after a bit, having listened to Naruto's explanation from the hallway.

"So will you do it?" asked Shizune before she walked over and sat down on the bed next to her master. She was furious when she found out that her sensei had gone and picked a fight with a child, but then she got to the scene of the battle just as Naruto used his Resurreccion, and saw that what she was fighting wasn't a mere child, but a being powerful enough to defeat Tsunade. Granted, she was drunk and hadn't trained in over a decade, but the fact remains.

"I don't know Shizune, I do know however that Orochimaru killed our sensei, and he must not be allowed to use his hands again." said Tsunade with conviction. When Orochimaru came to her saying that he had killed Sarutobi, she didn't believe him. But then Naruto came into the bar with Jiraiya and they both pretty much proved that he had. Which would explain why he had lost the use of his arms. Nobody, not even Orochimaru, fought a Hokage and got away unscathed.

"Tomorrow is when we were supposed to meet, I guess I need to wait till then. I'm going to a bar. I need a drink." said Tsunade, giving her student a tic mark.

She got up and walked to the door before exiting with Shizune following her out.


	11. Chapter 11

.**UPDATE: I neglected to respond to the reviewer named Rebmul, sorry about that. It's there at the bottom now.**

Naruto was sitting in the hotel room on the bed talking to Shizune when he heard a thunk sound from next to the window. He got up and peeked his head out of the window to see a kunai lodhed into the windowsill. He looked to where the knife came from to see a panting and pale Jiraiya wobbling on the next roof over. Naruto widened his eyes and used Sonido to reach Jiraiya and bring him back into the room. He immediately laid the Toad Sage on the bed, "Oi, Ero-sennin, what happened?"

"Tsunade spiked my drink with some kind of chakra destabilizing poison, but i dont know why. It's possible she could be trying to run away." said Jiraiya weakly. Shizune shook her head, "That's not what's going on. A couple hours before you arrived, Orochimaru came and tried to persuade Tsunade to heal his arms, which he said had been damaged in his fight against Sarutobi-sama. At first we didn't believe him, but then you guys came and all but told us he wasn't lying."

"Why the hell did you not tell us this sooner?!" shouted Naruto.

"Because Tsunade-sama was considering his offer." said Shizune.

Jiraiya didn't like the sound of that, "What did he offer her?"

"To revive Nawaki and Dan."

That was all it took for Jiraiya to scramble out of bed shakily. Naruto was confused, "Wait, revive them? That's not possible, they've been dead for years. If they had just died then I wouldn't doubt there was something that could do that but as it stands it's impossible."

"It isn't." said Jiraiya, "The Edo Tensei allows you to bring someone back from the dead and make them immortal. But the only way to do that is through a complex sealing array and a human sacrifice. Its what Orochimaru used to summon the Shodai And Nidaime Hokages in his fight against sensei. What she doesn't know is that the revived bodies are completely controlled by the caster."

"Jiraiya you stay here, Shizune you'll come with me, you're going to help me find Tsunade and we're going to stop this madness and hopefully kill Orochimaru in the process." said Naruto as he took a Soul Candy, ejecting his soul from his body. He grabbed his Zanpakutou from his body and started towards the door.

"Yeah right I'm just going to let you take off without me." said Jiraiya as he put his hands in a seal. He grit his teeth and forced chakra through his tenketsu, opening them and realigning his chakra network through sheer force of will alone, "This will only last a little while before the poison kicks in again, but for now, lets hurry."

"Hold on, the Kyuubi is still sealed inside my body, i can't risk Akatsuki getting a hold on it." Said Naruto before he looked toward the ceiling and opened his mouth unnaturally wide. A pair of arms came out if his mouth and grabbed his jaws before lifting itself out of Narutos body and landing on the floor. Naruto just threw up a clone of himself. Shizune and Jiraiya looked revolted as Naruto's mouth closed and two loud cracks signified that his jaw had been reset.

"I had forgotten you could do that. Its more disgusting when you look human." said Jiraiya.

"Are you kidding? That was horrifying!" exclaimed Shizune.

Naruto looked annoyed, "Believe me, if i knew any other way to use Soul Splitting i would do it. This is how most Hollows have to do it too. It's not fun at all. You know the sensation of throwing up? Well imagine doing that with another human body coming out. It sucks, but i can't let myself get taken by the Akatsuki for any reason."

"Alright, we've wasted enough time here, lets go." said Jiraiya.

They all left the hotel quickly, the pig Tonton leading the way to where she smelled Tsunade to be. They came across a destroyed wall on the outskirts of the village and found Tsunade's jacket there. They heard crashing in the distance and followed the rumbling till they could see Tsunade a ways away fighting a grey haired man who was somehow winning.

Tsunade was about to lose entirely when Naruto grabbed Jiraiya and Shizune by the shoulders and disappeared with Sonido.

They appeared in time for Naruto to block the grey haired man from hitting Tsunade with his glowing hands by catching his wrist. Naruto got a good look at the man and realized it was Kabuto, the 'genin' who helped him and his team through the second stage of the Chunin Exams. Naruto frowned when his eyes turned upward to the headband the man wore. The musical note of Sound shone proudly on his forehead protector.

"I see." said Naruto, "You work for Orochimaru. A pity, I kind of liked you, Kabuto." Naruto then proceeded to crush Kabuto's wrist in his hand, prompting him to scream in pain before he yanked his hand from Naruto's grasp and jumped backwards to gain some distance.

Naruto looked back and saw Jiraiya, Shizune and Tonton looking like they were about to throw up. Naruto scoffed, "Oh please, that was slow compared to my normal Sonido."

Jiraiya got a tick mark, "Idiot! Warn me first when you do something like that!" Shizune noddd in agreement after she got her bearings again.

Naruto was about to say something when he was pushed aside by Tsunade who shouted, "I do NOT need you to fight for me!" as she launched herself at Kabuto who engaged her in a one handed Taijutsu battle, trying to land a hit on her. Eventually he succeeded, striking her in her shoulder just as she was about to hit him in the face. She still struck him, but it seemed to be with the strength of a civilian at best.

"Oi, Baachan. What was that? I know your strength personally and that was pathetic." said Naruto.

"He has Chakra Scalpels, he severed the muscles in my shoulder so now my arm is useless until I can heal it. Wait, did you just call me Baachan?! Come over and say it to my face you little brat!" she yelled.

Kabuto just started laughing as he flexed his wrist, now fully healed after the little skirmish, "Naruto, I'm suprised, that was some strength yo-" he stopped talking as he saw the hole in his chest where his heart should be, "What the hell? How are you not dead? You have no heart!"

"I am dead you baka, at least right now. Theres no way a human could live with a hole in their chest like this. Fortunately, I'm not human." said Naruto.

Kqbuto was even more confused now, first he shows up looking like he's in his mid teens, next he has wierd bone like fragments on his face, now he has a five-inch wide hole in his chest. What the hell is going on here?

Kabuto didn't have a chance to speculate further as he had to dodge a kick from Tsunade. Annoyed, he decided to prey on her greatest weakness: homophobia. He pulled out a kunai and sliced his palm before flinging the ensuing blood onto Tsunade, who froze in shock.

"Don't stop now! What are you doing?" yelled Naruto in confusion.

"She can't help it. She has hemophobia." said Shizune. Naruto frowned, "That's really low, even for one of Orochimaru's goons."

Kabuto chuckled, "That's low huh? Well watch this!" he activated his Chakra Scalpels and swung his palm forward, aiming for the shaking Tsunade's heart. Naruto appeared in front of her and caught his wrist with his left hand, however, and reached for his Zanpakutou with his other hand.

Kabuto's eyes widened in horror as Naruto quickdrew his sword and severed Kabuto's arm at the shoulder before delivering a powerful kick to his chest, sending him into a rock ten feet away and knocking him out. Naruto was about to go for the kill but Orochimaru appeared in between them with a smirk on his face.

Orochimaru backed up to the unconscious Kabuto and used his teeth to pull the bandages from his left hand, revealing a seal tattoo. He then spread a little bit of Kabuto's blood on the seal. Naruto's eyes widened and he shouted "Move!" to everyone and they all jumped away with the exception of Tsunade who had to be picked up by Shizune.

An enormous explosion of smoke blanketed the area before it cleared to reveal a giant purple snake with horns. Orochimaru stood atop it.

"Orochimaru! Why have you summoned me here? I demand one hundred human sacrifices for this. If I don't get it I'll kill you." said the snake. Orochimaru chuckled before he pointed in the direction of the town, "Easy Manda. That village contains at least two thousand humans. You can eat however many you like as long as you help me destroy those pests."

Naruto was angered at such a careless view on so many lives. He looked toward Jiraiya, "Shouldn't you summon Gamabunta? We're going to need him in this fight." Jiraiya nodded before biting his thumb and going through hand signs. He slammed his hand on the ground and there was a puff of smoke. It cleared to reveal a small orange toad about the size of a softball, "What's up?"

Naruto sweatdropped while Jiraiya's eyes widened, "That was as much chakra as I could muster. The poison must've kicked in again."

"Alright, well hopefully this works then." Said Naruto before he held out his palm. Red energy formed into a ball in front of his hand and he announced his attack.

"Cero."

The red energy blasted forward, destroying the ground in it's wake. The blast struck Manda dead-on, obscuring the serpent in smoke. When it cleared Manda was merely seen sitting there as he was before, but with wisps of smoke trailing off of him. He looked at Naruto with interest, "That was an attack consisting of pure Yin energy, how did you do that?"

"I am purely spirit, therefore I have purely spiritual attacks. I have most of my power sealed away however, so I imagine that did little beyond heat up your scales. Oh well. Jiraiya, wake Tsunade from whatever funk she's in, I might need her to shatter my mask if I get out of hand." said Naruto before he held his hand up to his face.

Black Reiryoku formed into a mask on his face in the exact image of his first Hollow mask. Then his body exploded into a thick black smoke.

The roar was heard for miles.

* * *

><p>Alright, so what Naruto just did was channel spirit energy out of his Zanpakutou and into a mask on his face. How much energy? You'll see, don't worry.<p>

REVIEW RESPONSE:

ahsankhanahsankhan2014: First of all, in response to typing your name, Jesus. Second of all, the story description says 'eventually transcendent' and we cant have a transcendent being be solely Hollow now can we?

Rebmul: I am not sure whether i will be doing a pairing, and if i do it will only be done towards the end of the story. I think. Still planning.


	12. Chapter 12

.

Orochimaru looked at the black cloud in confusion as he watched it climb until it was about six stories tall. The cloud started to disperse and revealed what it concealed.

A black robed figure wearing a black mask with white teeth and white whisker-like grooves stood tall. The standard Gillian-class Menos in all but its mask. The roar it gave was heard for miles. It looked around before seemingly sniffing the air.

It snapped it's head towards Manda and Orochimaru before roaring at them. Slowly it started walking forward with killing intent palpably saturating the area.

"What manner of creature is that?" asked Orochimaru, "Have you seen anything like it Manda?" The serpent scoffed, "No, and i don't particularly care what it is. However it is giving enough killing intent for a lower Biju so I'm going to use Ninjutsu." The horned boss summon began glowing with chakra as he charged up for a technique.

"Lightning Release: False Darkness!" Manda shouted before he opened his mouth wide and a beam of lightning shot out. The beam tore through the air and slammed into the Gillian's left shoulder just above the Hollow hole. It emit a horrible high pitched scream of pain before opening its mouth and charging a large energy ball in it at least fifteen times larger than the one Naruto used before.

The Cero blasted forward faster than before, almost to the level of a Bala. It did more damage as well. Instead of simply tearing through the landscape as before, it completely incinerated the plant life and melted through the earth on its path down towards Manda.

The great snake took the blast full on, and had to do a Body Replacement Jutsu by shedding his skin. He tunneled underground just as the smoke started to disappear.

The Gillian looked around in confusion before Manda burst out of the ground behind it and bit into the injured shoulder with his enormous fangs before channeling a large amount of lightning chakra through them, paralysing the Menos for a moment.

XXXXX

WITH THE OTHERS

XXXXX

Jiraiya, Tsunade(Who had broken out of her fear with simple survival instinct) and Shizune were standing a distance away from the two titanic beings as they battled. Even as strong as they were they would only get in the way without a boss summon, and Katsuyu wasn't built for fighting. Right now Tsunade was busy purging the effects of her poison from Jiraiya's system so he could fight.

"Is Naruto going to be okay?" asked Shizune. Jiraiya shook his head, "That's not Naruto, thats what they call a Gillian. A mindless hollow with no other purpose than to feed and destroy the most threatening things to them they can find. With Naruto, however, he's still partially in control. Just enought to tell it where to go. Naruto is able to assume a Gillian form by channeling enough Reiryoku from his Zanpakutou into a mask to form a Gillian body. Unfortunately this comes with the side effect of reducing his intelligence to that of almost nothing. He is running completely on instinct. As far as i know, Naruto is the only Arrancar to ever be able to put his mask back on to assume a basic Hollow form."

"Why doesn't he just release his sword like he did against me?" asked Tsunade. Jiraiya sighed, "That form only had six tails because he was in human form. He was using a physical body so that was the maximum he was able to use. If he were to release his entire Zanpakutou he would be on the level of the Kyuubi or maybe even higher, he still doesn't know how to control that much power, and even if he did, it would be overkill on a massive scale. Hell, if he were to even use his Gran Rey Cero in his sealed state outside of his body it would probably destort reality and that's not something he wants to do unless completely necessary."

The two women looked towards the robed monster with a new sense of fear, even Tsunade and Jiraiya were out of their league against him when he pulled out all the stops.

Tsunade finished up on Jiraiya and he stood up before noticing something.

Orochimaru was no longer on Manda's head.

Decades as an accomplished shinobi was the only thing that enabled Jiraiya to dodge the elongated blade of Kusanagi before it impaled him. He spun to the source of the blade and saw Orochimaru's head on a VERY stretched out neck coming out of the ground with the long Kusanagi emanating from his mouth. The blade shortened before the Snake Sannin swallowed it whole and his head and neck retreated back into the dirt.

Jiraiya smirked, "Should've left the ground." He ran through multiple hand signs before slamming his hands on the ground and calling out the name of his technique, "Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!" The ground darkened spreading out from Jiraiya's hands, turning it into mud. It continued to spread until the bog was about fifty meters wide, covering the area. Tsunade and Shizune, upon seeng the hand signs, jumped a good distance away so as to not get caught in the technique.

Jiraiya looked around until he saw small bubbles start to form about five meters away from where Orochimaru first revealed himself. Walking on the mud as if it were stone, he came to the area of bubbles and did more hand signs before putting his hands back on the bog, causing the entire thing to harden back into dirt within seconds. He channelled chakra to his hand in the form of a spinning, grinding ball, revealing the prized technique of his former student the Yondaime Hokage.

"Rasengan!" Jiraiya shouted before slamming the sphere into the ground, carving through it until he saw blood appear on the rocks. He reached down and grabbed the source of the blood, a pale carved up shoulder. He pulled with force and ripped the body out of the ground.

It looked like Orochimaru, except the mouth was wide open, causing the body to look somewhat ghoulish. Jiraiya looked into the mouth to see that the body was hollow, "Oh come on! I have enough trouble dealing with the fact that my student can throw himself up, i don't need my enemies doing it too!"

"Well that's curious, so your student knows a similar technique eh? Tell me, is your student Naruto-kun? The last time I saw him was when I placed the Cursed Seal on Sasuke-kun. He wasn't nearly as poweful then, I manhandled him like a ragdoll. What happened to give him so much power?" asked Orochimaru as he walked out from behind a tree. He was covered in a clear slimy substance and had the same smirk on his face.

"You'll might find out... if you survive!" said Jiraiya before he ran forward holding a larger Rasengan. He tried to slam it into Orochimaru's stomach, and was suprised when he stood there and took it. Blood flew from the wound before Orochimaru grabbed onto Jiraiya and held firm, "Chi Bunshin Daibakuha."

A massive and forceful detonation erupted from the body of the now revealed Blood Clone, and Jiraiya flew away before hitting a rock and flipping over it. When he landed he took a while to sit up and catch his breath. A Blood Clone? That technique rests within the Scroll of Seals. How did Orochimaru get it? Come to think of it, how did he know the Edo Tensei? That thought did not bode well.

"Ugh, when did you get the Scroll and how?" asked Jiraiya knowing that, wherever he was, Orochimaru could hear him.

"Ah,ah,ah... Not telling... but I'm not surprised you figured it out. I would simply have made a Shadow Clone, but that technique requires hand seals, and as you know I can't use seals anymore. The Chi Bunshin technique, however, only requires that I have enough blood and chakra to sustain it. And due to my new regenerative abilities, I can make as many of them as I want, given enough time." said Orochimaru from seemingly everywhere at once.

"Cut it out Orochimaru, you know that doesn't scare me." said Jiraiya as he smirked. Orochimaru landed in front of him, having been standing in a tree since before his clone got caught in the swamp. "You should give up now", said the White Snake, "You'll only g-ugh!" He was cut of by a woman's fist impacting his cheek, forcefully sending him into the tree he had been standing on.

Tsunade glared with her fist still extended, "Forgetting about me will be the last thing you ever do."

Orochimaru got his balance just in time to avoid a brutal kick which shattered the tree. Leg still raised, she brought it down on the ground with earth-shattering force.

Orochimaru jumped into the air so as to avoid the mini-earthquake but caught a Rasengan to the side of his back for the trouble. The spiralling mass of energy tore through his side before exploding outward, causing him to be flung to the side. He rolled on the ground for a ways before stopping and shakily getting to his hands and knees. He looked to his side and saw, as well as felt, the bleeding hole there. He cursed before opening his mouth wide and abandoning his body like a snake shedding his skin. Also like a snake, he now had a large scaled tail in place of legs. He slithered away quickly towards Manda who was being held by his throat at the hand of the Gillian, and once he arrived at his Summon he transformed the tail into legs once more before running up the serpent and jumping into Manda's open mouth. Then they disappeared in a burst of smoke.

The Menos looked around in confusion before roaring in anger that it's prey had escaped it. It sniffed the air again, except this time it turned its head quickly towards Jiraiya. The Toad Sage backed up before shouting, "Tsunade, i need you to shatter its mask. Hurry before it gets out of control!" Tsunade nodded before running at the Gillian who tried to grab her several times. She dodged between the monster's legs and tried to jump onto it's back and stick with chakra, but fell off as a result. 'That's right, he doesn't have any physical energy.' she thought, so she opted for grabbing onto the robes and climbing it the old fashioned way. It tried to get her off, but was unable to reach her as she kept throwing herself from place to place. Eventually she got to the top of it's head and hung herself off of it's hood before shattering it's mask with a kick to the face. She dropped to the ground before running away as black shadowy smoke poured from the empty hood and it began to fall.

It crashed to the ground first on it's knees and then on it's face before the entire thing seemed to melt into a giant thick black puddle. The puddle started bubbling inthe center before all of the goo started withdrawing into the center before it took on the form of a humanoid. After a second it gained color, and before long Naruto was standing there with the black mask still on his face. He took it off and absorbed it into his hand before spitting to his right.

"Weak hollows taste like shit."

* * *

><p>No new reviews with questions this time, but thanks go to outcastmike for reviewing with so much positive feedback.<p>

Also, I'm going to see if my sister wants to draw one of Naruto's Hollow forms. That would be sooooooo cool.

Leave a review, and I will respond.


	13. Chapter 13

.

After the fight with Orochimaru and Manda, an observation of the battlefield showed that Orochimaru had left without bringing Kabuto along, so they now had a higher-up of Oto to interrogate. Of course he had tried to run away and even kill himself with a suicide pill he hid in his teeth, but a shuriken to the chin and one of Tsunade's punches to the stomach discouraged any further resistance.

Currently they were walking back to Konoha as Tsunade had finally agreed to become the Godaime. Kabuto had multiple chakra suppression seals applied to his person, and Tsunade even went so far as to give him the same poison she had given Jiraiya the previous day.

Naruto was currently talking animatedly to Shizune, detailing the training he went through while stuck in the Dangai. Right now he was talking about the process of removing his mask. "And it hurt like a bitch too! I had to take it off piece by piece because when you become a Hollow you don't have an actual face under there. Its just attached to your skull." Shizune looked mortified, "Well why did you do it then? Why go through so much pain voluntarily?"

"Other than the fact that the Reio ordered me to do it himself? It gives you a tremendous boost in power, seals most of that power away in a Zanpakutou, and takes the edge off of the hunger for human souls. So there's actually several very good reasons to do it, even if it's painful as all hell." Naruto explained.

"Wait, did you just say 'hunger for human souls'?" asked Tsunade.

"Oh yeah, Hollows have to devour souls to stay alive, and the hunger can sometimes be unbearable. But I've never eaten a plain human soul, only Hollows on the diet for me." said Naruto warily. He didn't know how they were going to react, but judging from the angry frown on Tsunade's face, it wasn't going to be pretty.

"You cannibalize your own kind, even though you understand their nature better than anyone else alive!?" Tsunade was absolutely seething, how could this brat do something so monstrous?

Naruto got a hard look on his face, "Tsunade, you have no idea what it's like in Hueco Mundo. In there, the weak are meat, and the strong do eat. I don't expect you to understand, maybe if you die and become a Hollow, and evolve past the basic and Gillian stages, then you'll understand. I don't know why I became a Hollow when I'm sure there's people out there who have had way worse lives than me, but I feel i became this for a reason, or at least was meant to evolve and become strong now that I am a Hollow."

Tsunade now felt guilty for judging based on things she didn't understand, and opened her mouth to apologize, but was cut off by a raised hand by Naruto, "I'm sure you were judging Hollows based on humans, so there is no reason to apologize. For future reference, Hollows are evil, nothing else to it. They may not have been evil when they were human, but once you become a hollow, you will kill, rape, and take whatever you want. I wasn't a normal Hollow for very long, so I didn't have time to become a proper monster, but i still devour my own kind to survive, and that makes me no better than them."

He looked around before licking his lips, "Speaking of which, I haven't eaten since before the two years in the Dangai, so I'm going to go to Hueco Mundo and gorge on Gillians, so I'll meet you back at Konoha, I'll be in the Hokage's office by the week's end."

With that, he walked to the side and tore a Garganta in the air before stepping into it.

* * *

><p>Sorry for the short chapter, but I'm not good at the transitions like that.<p> 


End file.
